To the Editor:

All family physicians who face the everyday struggle of dealing with mismanaged care should put the following web site on their must-read list: http://home.earthlink.net/~austintxmd. It is a very helpful site if you want to know which plans are deceitfully cutting payments to physicians (or “providers” if you prefer) and limiting services to patients (or “lives”). Being a physician, not a corporate lawyer, you may not be aware of many of these payment reductions, which may or may not be in the small print of “negotiated” contracts. The web information can help us as physicians decide which plans we should consider “discharging.”

Additionally, the web site offers information that is a real eye opener for patients. Its discussion of what physicians do relative to other professions has given my patients a better understanding of my frustrations and obstacles in today's health care system.